Monthly Archives: October 2004

The latest NY Times/CBS poll has President Bush up by 48-45. The “internals” of the poll provide even worse news for John Kerry. For example, John Kerry has a 41% favorable, 47% unfavorable rating. This is his worst rating ever. President Bush has a 48% favorable, 41% unfavorable rating. That is his best rating since last December. Undecided voters lean to President Bush 50%-47%, validating the Pew finding and calling »

Last month our reader Sharon J. was contacted by the notoriously leftist CBS/60 Minutes producer Leslie Cockburn with respect to the segment that aired tonight. Ed Morrissey at Captain’s Quarters previewed the message that Sharon received in his post “Sixty Minutes trolling for left-wing political groups.” Here is the email message that Sharon received from Cockburn: As per our conversation, I am producing a 60 Minutes piece (with Kroft) which »

As I’ve mentioned before, I will be part of NBC’s election night broadcast team. They will have a group of three bloggers–Ana Marie Cox, Joe Trippi (Is he a blogger? Not that I know of), and me. They will refer to us periodically for our comments on the races, and for information about what is being said and reported in the blogosphere. The blogosphere has been referred to as “open »

Many readers have written us, expressing outrage that when NBC’s Dateline rebroadcast Tom Brokaw’s interview with John Kerry, which was previously shown on MSNBC, Kerry’s admission that not all of his military records have been released was edited out. Other bloggers are accusing NBC of covering up Kerry’s admission that he has repeatedly lied about making all of his records public. There is no question that a key line got »

Earlier today, former Cincinnati Reds catcher Johnny Bench introduced President Bush at a rally at the Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati: In Cincinnati, I have to think Bench’s endorsement is worth some votes. President Bush has gotten some striking athletic endorsements–Bench, John Elway, Curt Schilling, and quite a few others–while, as far as I know, Kerry has gotten none. Maybe that’s why Kerry is so obsessive about throwing balls around »

During his anti-war days (I’m referring to the Vietnam war, not the subsequent ones he has opposed to one extent or another) John Kerry was fond of asking how our government could ask someone to be the last man to die for a mistake. The Currency Lad hopes that this week the American people will ask John Kerry to be the last man to “die” for a mistake. The mistake »

A reader alerted us to this Middle East Media Research Institute article on Osama bin Laden’s videotape. MEMRI says that a significant part of Osama’s threat against the U. S. has not been accurately translated: The tape of Osama bin Laden that was aired on Al-Jazeera on Friday, October 29th included a specific threat to “each U.S. state,” designed to influence the outcome of the upcoming election against George W. »

If you have calmed down after checking out the Horserace Blog, you may or may not want to challenge your anger management skills by reading the column by Stephen Morris that NRO posted this afternoon: “John Kerry’s other Vietnam war.” Tonight I join in John Kerry’s exhortation: Wake up, America! »

…Robert Frost urged us to “choose something like a star.” If, like me, you’re fretting in a way that is unconducive to celestial thoughts, visit Jay Cost’s thoughtful Horserace Blog, full of up-to-the-minute good stuff helping to sort the wheat from the chaff, and providing guidance on how to interpret the available data. Among other things, Cost has an excellent two-part analysis of the race in Minnesota. (Courtesy of Cliff »

Foiled in their plan to broadcast the Al Qaqaa non-story tonight, 60 Minutes fell back on an old standby: an “expose” of troops not having proper equipment in Iraq, unarmored Humvees, etc. I turned it off after a few minutes, so I don’t know whether they worked the bake sale hoax into the story or not. And I didn’t find out whether they mentioned that 75% or 80% of the »

Reader Larry Rosenshein alerted us to this CBS News poll which has President Bush with a three-point lead. It is interesting that 20% of those polled say they have already voted; of those 20%, 51% said they voted for President Bush, 43% for John Kerry. But don’t get too excited. It appears that we’re only talking about approximately 130 people. More meaningful, possibly, is that by 49% to 33%, respondents »

The other day, I discussed baffled bloggers — the disproportionately large group of our fellow hobbyists who find the decision between Bush and Kerry nearly impossible to make. It seems that some readers prefer their bloggers “baffled.” Glenn Reynolds (who does not appear ever to have been particularly baffled by this year’s choice) reports that one of his readers says he’s disappointed to see him “abandoning ambiguity to support Bush.” »

There were reports that Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling had backed off his endorsement of President Bush, but that turns out not to be true. Schilling has recorded a phone message that says: “These past couple of weeks, Sox fans … trusted me when it was my turn on the mound. Now you can trust me on this: President Bush is the right leader for our country.” The message will »

A Bloomberg News survey of economists shows a median forecast of 175,000 payroll jobs in October, with unemployment holding at a low 5.4%. If that prediction is correct, it’s a very healthy total. The Labor Department’s numbers won’t come out until a few days after the election. No one is going to hear about these numbers unless Kerry wins, in which case, the Kerry Boom is already underway–has been, in »

The New York Daily News has broken with its recent pattern of endorsing Democrats for president, and has come out in favor of George Bush. The paper is “dismayed” by Bush’s record on domestic policy, but supports him nonetheless because of the overriding importance of the war on terrorism. The News finds that Kerry has promised to be tough on terror. His words are resolute »

Readers who follow football have probably heard that when the Washington Redskins lose the final home game before a presidential election, the party in power invariably fails to hold the White House, or some such thing. If today’s loss at home to the Green Bay Packers is any indication, the Democrats will win this year’s presidential race in court. With about two minutes left, the Redskins scored a touchdown that »

We noted last night that the Minneapolis Star Tribune had performed its biennial service to the Democratic Party, via its notoriously inaccurate Minnesota Poll: the poll, reported in this morning’s paper, shows Kerry with an eight-point lead, 49% to 41%. This poll is worth further comment, in view of the Minnesota Poll’s sorry history. The Strib is sensitive about the fact that its poll is always wrong, and always in »